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Crash Course: More Little Known History

June 1964 : Jimmie Nicol sits alone in the Melbourne airport, waiting for the plane that will take him back to obscurity.

When Ringo was ill with tonsillitis, Jimmie substituted on drums for 8 concerts & lived a superstar’s life for 10 days.

The Beatles would greatly boost his career but instead found that the spotlight moved away from him once Starr returned to the group. His subsequent lack of commercial success led him into bankruptcy in 1965.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

General Patton was so incensed by what he saw when his forces reached the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, that he ordered that a thousand civilians be collected and made to see what their leaders had done. The MPs were so enraged that they brought back 2,000.

Sir Henry Morgan, Pirate

In 1671, the pirate Henry Morgan attacked Panama’s Fort San Lorenzo, which is now in ruins.

Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688) was a Welsh privateer who fought for the English against the Spanish in the Caribbean in the 1660’s and 1670’s. He is remembered as the greatest of the privateers, amassing huge fleets, attacking prominent targets and being the worst enemy of the Spanish since Sir Francis Drake.

Although he made numerous raids all along the Spanish Main, his three most famous exploits were the 1668 sack of Portobello, the 1669 raid on Maracaibo and the 1671 attack on Panama. He was knighted by King Charles II of England and died a rich man on Jamaica.

The Pollock Twins

In 1957, 11 year-old Joanna and 6 year-old Jacqueline Pollock were tragically killed in a car accident in Northumberland, England. They were sisters. A year later, their mother gave birth to twins Jennifer and Gillian.

The younger twin, Jennifer, had birth marks on her body in exactly the same place as Jacqueline had them. The twins then started requesting toys belonging to the deceased girls which they had no prior knowledge of. The twins even asked to go to a park they have never been to before (but their deceased sisters have).

A well-respected psychologist at the time, one Dr. Ian Stevenson, studied the case in-depth and concluded it was likely the twins were reincarnations of their departed sisters.

Shugborough inscription

Looking at the 18th-century Shepherd’s Monument in Staffordshire, England, you might take it as nothing more than a sculpted re-creation of Nicolas Poussin’s famous painting, “Arcadian Shepherds.” Look closer, though, and you’ll notice a curious sequence of letters: DOUOSVAVVM — a code that has eluded decipherment for over 250 years.

Though the identity of the code carver remains a mystery, some have speculated that the code could be a clue left behind by the Knights Templar about the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.

Many of the world’s greatest minds have tried to crack the code and failed, including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.

The Lost City of Heracleion

It was only a mythical legend. Appearing in a few rare inscriptions and ancient texts, the city of Thonis-Heracleion was not something anyone expected to find, and no one was looking for it.

So it was something of a shock when French archaeologist Franck Goddio, looking for 18th-century French warships, saw a colossal face emerge from the watery shadows. Goddio had stumbled upon Thonis-Heracleion completely submerged 6.5 kilometres off Alexandria’s coastline. Among the underwater ruins were 64 ships, 700 anchors, a treasure trove of gold coins, statues standing at 16 feet, and most notably the remains of a massive temple to the god Amun-Gereb, and the tiny sarcophagi for the animals that were brought there as offerings.

The ruins and artifacts made from granite and diorite are remarkably preserved, and give a glimpse into what was, 2300 years ago, one of the great port cities of the world. The harbor of Thonis-Heracleion (the Egyptian and Greek names of the city) controlled all the trade into Egypt.

Live Long and Prosper

Two hands, with middle and ring fingers separated, are the symbol of a Jewish blessing — this signifies a Kohen, a descendant of Aaron, such as this headstone in Worms, Germany.